Having finished this epic JRPG earlier in the year i thought that i would post my thoughts about it on here. Released back in 2008 Lost Odyssey was created by Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi's new company Mistwalker and features a soundtrack by fellow Final Fantasy legend Nobuo Uematsu.
Lost Odyssey plays very much like a classic old school JRPG in the vein of the pre XII Final Fantasy games. It's battle system is simple to grasp but offers a huge amount of depth of customisation. This is down the the various rings that can be equipped by your party members which offer certain increased skill bonus' such as increased element damage or an increased chance of a critical attack.
What separates Lost Odyssey from the majority of modern RPG's is it's mature melancholy storyline and it's approach to characterisation. Yes there are a couple of cliches (the queen's approach to clothing for example) but in general it pulls it off very very well indeed. The dream sequences in particular are very intriguing and add to the depth of the main characters.
Also setting Lost Odyssey apart from the pack is it's old school approach to difficulty.
The random battle encounter rate is quite low when compared to other games in the genre but each battle presents a significant challenge. Adding to this is the fact that you can only gain a limited amount of XP from fighting the same set of enemies repeatedly, meaning that grinding your party up to a stupidly powerful level is practically impossible. This clever approach to level gaining added to the experience for me and maintained the tension and excitement throughout the game.
The bosses are a particular highlight and can be very tough indeed, as with the normal encounters each boss fight relies on using the correct strategy rather than using brute force
Graphically the game can be stunning in places but there are a couple of ropey looking areas. A couple of character models in particular could've been done better.
Voice acting is not too bad, i've certainly heard worse but the game benefits from the option to use the original Japanese voice track rather than the moderately enjoyable English one.
The soundtrack is a classic, the overworld theme is now one of my favourite Uematsu tracks and is probably his best work for quite a few years.
People have criticised both the after battle and game over themes of sounding too similiar to their Final Fantasy counterparts, but the way i see it this is a direct and intentional homage. They wanted to make a traditional Final Fantasy game in everything but name and that's certainly what they have done!
The game is not perfect though and there are a couple of small niggles. The game can be fussy with regards to lining up your character correctly for a context sensitive action such as opening a chest and the skill learning system can initially be confusing. These are very minor points however in what is certainly the best JRPG i've played since the PS1 days.
Lost Odyssey can be picked up very cheaply now (my practically new copy cost me just £5) so if you are a fan of the genre and own a 360 then you have no excuse really not to pick this up!
No comments:
Post a Comment